Monthly Archives: April 2013

After spending 15 years as an assistant general manager in Detroit, Nill was named the GM of the Dallas Stars.

“Obviously, it’s a huge loss but I’m thrilled for Jimmy,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “He’s paid his dues. He’s waited for an opportunity. I think at the end of the day you look at Steve Yzerman, Don Waddell, Paul MacLean, Todd McLellan, part of the reason we’ve been able to have success is we’ve been able to have people here that have made us better. They then had an opportunity to go elsewhere to fulfill professional dreams they couldn’t fill here.”

Nill, who had been in the Wings’ organization for 19 years, signed a five-year deal with the Stars.

“When you’ve committed as long a time as Jim has and helped us have the success, he’s deserved the opportunity, if he wants to go elsewhere, he deserves the opportunity to go,” Holland said. “It’s a general manager’s position, he gets to run his own team. Absolutely it’s a big loss but we’ve had lots of big losses. Ultimately, it’s somebody else’s opportunity. We got to find a way to develop people. We’ll figure something out in the next month or two how we go forward.”

Yzerman is the GM in Tampa Bay, while MacLean (Ottawa) and McLellan (San Jose) are both head coaches.

“Over the last six or seven years every time there’s been a job opening the team has called to ask for permission,” Holland said. “Every time they’d call I go to him and say the call has come. He negotiated for a long time a contract that didn’t allow him to go and he was OK with it. But the last go round he negotiated an out clause which told me he was more open to leaving.

“At the end of the day, his kids are older,” Holland added. “When your kids are younger you want to have stability.”

Nill turned down the Montreal GM job last summer because of family reasons. He’s also interviewed for GM jobs with Calgary and Toronto.

Holland would like to have his replacement in place by the NHL Entry Draft, June 29.

Holland mentioned Ryan Martin, the team’s assistant general manager of hockey administration, and Kris Draper, who’s a special advisor.

“We’ve got some people internally that can pick up some of the responsibility that he had,” Holland said.

Wings coach Mike Babcock about returning to Anaheim where he began his NHL head coaching career.

“I lived here, I like coming here. It’s a nice rink, it’s warm. 4 1/2 hours to come here (from Detroit). I talked to (former assistant) Paul MacLean yesterday – how far is Ottawa from Montreal – I think they can actually take the city bus. It’s a big difference. That’s the biggest negative in coming. The biggest plus is it’s beautiful out there and we like coming and we have lots of fun when we’re here.”

DETROIT – The biggest question mark heading into this season for the Detroit Red Wings was their depth along the blue line.

After the loss of Nicklaus Lidstrom (retirement) and Brad Stuart (trade), coupled with their inability to sign a top notch defenseman this offseason and the injuries they faced at the start, the Wings patched things together to where now the blue line is one of their strengths.

“We’ve really improved drastically in that area, probably the most improved part of our team,” said Wings coach Mike Babcock, whose squad faces Anaheim in the first round of the playoff Tuesday night. “With (Jimmy Howard) playing the way he is and the D able to get the puck going, we’re spending a lot less time in our zone. That allows you to be much better up front.”

And everything seemed to come together on the blue line when Detroit was able to land Danny DeKeyser.

“He really has done a good job for us,” Babcock said. “We liked him all along when we were recruiting him. We had no idea that when he came to the National Hockey League he’d be able to do the things he’s done for us. Basically, it’s allowed us to move the puck better, to get back and get pucks. If you improve your D zone play, it improves your offense and makes you a much quicker team. Obviously, we had deep growth amongst the group we had already and we added him, it made us all that much better.”

The Wings beat out a number of teams to get the services of the prized free agent defenseman out of Western Michigan.

“I’m really impressed,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “I didn’t know much about him before he arrived. Coming from college hockey to playing at this level and the way he’s been playing is impressive and we’re happy for him and hopefully it’ll continue.”

DeKeyser, a De La Salle graduate, made his NHL appearance on April 5 in Colorado and has not left the lineup while others, Ian White, Brendan Smith, Kyle Quincey, Carlo Colaiacovo and Brian Lashoff, have been a healthy scratch a time or two during that stretch.

“I think we’ve done a real good job to rebuild our D on the fly here,” Babcock said. “We’ve had great growth on the back end. Getting DeKeyser to come has made a huge difference to our team. If we don’t’ get (him) we don’t make the playoffs.”

DeKeyser, who is still waiting on his first NHL goal, had one assist, 15 shots on goal and was a plus-4 over those 11 games.

“He’s been solid,” Smith said. “It’s been quite impressive actually coming right out of college and stepping in and playing a lot of minutes. We’re really impressed with him and happy that he can help our team as much as he has. We’ve needed that speed on the back end and he’s got a lot of speed and a great reach and a great first pass. He’s been really good for us.”

DeKeyser is averaging about 18 minutes of ice time.

“It seems like he’s been around for a while the way he’s been playing,” Smith said. “I’m impressed. I think a lot of people are impressed. I know the coaches are. We all knew he was a good player. Anytime you grab a player who’s so highly touted who was undrafted and there are 20-plus teams going after him, like Justin Schultz was last year, you see there’s a lot of talent, but you don’t know how he’s going to defend when he gets a chance to play. Obviously, he’s done it. He’s been awesome. Hopefully he can keep it up because we need him more than ever now.”

DETROIT – If the Detroit Red Wings could have picked an opening round opponent, Anaheim would have been their top choice over Chicago.

And with how the Wings played down the stretch it’s the Ducks they got, with the series beginning Tuesday night in Anaheim.

Detroit won its final four games of the regular season to climb from the eighth seed, and a date with the Blackhawks, to the seventh seed in the Western Conference to extend its consecutive trips to the playoffs to 22.

“It was playoff mode (down the stretch) and that’s what we enjoy playing the most,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “You want to play games that are really important and that mean a lot and we got a taste of it before the playoffs. I think it was good for our group to go through that and I think it’ll help us in this postseason.”

After dropping the first meeting this year with the Ducks, who scored two goals in the opening two minutes of the third period in the victory, the Wings won the next two meetings, both in Anaheim.

“We played these guys pretty well this year,” said forward Justin Abdelkader, who had a hat trick in one of the wins. “We’re looking forward to going out to California. It’s always nice going out there and hopefully we can get a couple of games. It will be a good matchup for us. They’re a good team. They’ve played well all year.”

The 10 points that separated the teams in the standings doesn’t matter to Detroit, especially seeing what the L.A. Kings did last season by winning the Stanley Cup as an eighth seed.

“I think the parity is so close in the West and in the NHL, it’s so close,” defenseman Kyle Quincey said. “Any team can beat any team and we’re just happy to be in the race right now. The way we’re playing right now, we like our chances. We just hope to keep playing like we’re playing.”

Predictions
Western Conference

(1) Chicago vs. (8) Minnesota: The Blackhawks began the season by going 24 straight games without a regulation loss. The Wild struggled down the stretch and were the last team to qualify for the postseason. Pick: Chicago in 4.

(2) Anaheim vs. (7) Detroit: The Wings have been playing playoff type hockey down the stretch, while the Ducks have struggled, going 8-9-2 in their last 19 after starting the year 22-3-4. Pick: Detroit in 6.

(3) Vancouver vs. (6) San Jose: The big question is goaltending for the Canucks and if Cory Schneider can play well enough to keep Roberto Luongo on the bench. The Sharks swept the season series as two points separated these two teams in the standings. Pick: San Jose in 6.

(4) St. Louis vs. (5) Los Angeles: Goalie Brian Elliott got hot at the right time for the Blues going 11-2-0 over the last 13 games. The Kings have won eight in a row against St. Louis dating back to last year’s run to the Stanley Cup. Pick: St. Louis in 7.

Eastern Conference

(1) Pittsburgh vs. (8) N.Y. Islanders: Even if Sidney Crosby can’t go in the opening round, the moves the Penguins made prior to the trade deadline easily makes them the favorite in this series and also to come out of the East. The Islanders are in the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. Pick: Pittsburgh in 5.

(2) Montreal vs. (7) Ottawa: The Canadiens struggled mightily down the stretch. The Senators got a huge lift on the blue line when Erik Karlsson returned from a 70-percent tear of his Achilles tendon. Pick: Montreal in 6.

(3) Washington vs. (6) N.Y. Rangers: Could be the best matchup in the opening round. The Capitals went 15-2-2 down the stretch, led by Alex Ovechkin, who scored 19 of his 32 goals in that span. The Rangers are also red hot, going 10-3-1 in April. Pick: Washington in 6.

(4) Boston vs. (8) Toronto: Their four meetings this season were close, with three decided by one goal, one was in a shootout, and another was a two-goal game. The Bruins won three of the four. The Leafs are in the playoffs for the first time since 2004. Pick: Boston in 5.

ROMULUS — Wings coach Mike Babcock said he’ll go with the same lineup for Game 1 that has won four straight to finish off the regular season.

“They’re not getting in,” Babcock said of the injured guys that are healthy enough to return to the lineup. “The guys that got us here are getting in Game 1 and we’ll adjust after Game 1. I already told them that they’re not in, get themselves ready and be there to support the guys and help the team. But for Game 1 those guys that got us here are getting a chance to play.”

Forwards Todd Bertuzzi and Mikael Samuelsson have been cleared to return to action.